Tag Archives: Ron Althoff

Annual Ryegrass in a Cover Crop Mix with Rapeseed

Ron Althof is an agronomist and cover crop seed specialist working out of Effingham, Illinois. In a recent conversation, he talked about the value of cover crop mixes. And while some “cocktail” mixes can contain more than a dozen different species…and cost upwards of $60/acre to plant, he suggested starting with more basics, especially if you’re new to using cover crops.

“More people this past year tried rapeseed (or “rape”) in combination with annual ryegrass,” Ron said. “The two work together very well and the cost per acre is about a third of what expensive cocktail mixes cost.” Annual ryegrass goes on at a rate of about 15 – 20 lbs/ac, depending on whether you’re drilling (less seed) or broadcasting it. Rapeseed goes on at a rate of about 2 lb/ac.

The value of annual ryegrass, of course, is its ease of germinating and growing, whether drilled after harvest or broadcast before harvest. Annual ryegrass has deep penetrating roots, as well as a large surface mat, all of which promotes soil stability and friability (crumbly texture), with more organic matter (from decaying roots after the ryegrass is killed in the spring) and attractive microbiology (healthy bacteria, earthworms, etc).

Rapeseed is a major crop worldwide, used for oil production (vegetable and biodiesel) and as meal for livestock. In recent years, rape has been successfully used as a cover crop as well. Ron mentioned some of its attributes:

“Rapeseed also broadcasts easily and establishes well,” Ron added. “It can be planted later than radish. Like a radish, rape also has a nice tap root; but its advantage over radish is that rape has strong lateral branching roots, whereas Radish has only small lateral root hairs. Thus, the rape root stays in the ground. The other nice thing: rape usually doesn’t winter kill. It’s hardy, like annual ryegrass, and thus will protect soil from winter and spring erosion and runoff problems.”

“Finally, rape and annual ryegrass is a great cover crop mix to use whether your next crop is soybeans or corn. Annual ryegrass is a perfect choice for sequestering nitrogen, useful to both beans and corn in July when the nitrogen is released by the decaying cover crop residue. Rapeseed also helps soybean foliage as the cover crop residue releases carbon dioxide. In the process, rape also seems to protect soybean plants from nematode infestation and sudden death syndrome.”

One final note from Ron: “When terminating rapeseed, the appropriate herbicide to use is 2, 4-D…glyphosate alone will not provide a good kill.”

 

Annual Ryegrass Videos – Basics and Advanced Information

Perhaps you’ve already seen these dozen videos about annual ryegrass, both about how to plant and manage it, but also the benefits of having a cover crop on your soil. Click here if you want to review them...the link here is to the first one, and once on the YouTube channel, you can find the others easily by typing Annual Ryegrass in the search engine.

Here are a couple other videos about annual ryegrass, produced by Dale Strickler.

Annual ryegrass for forage and as a cover crop.

Annual ryegrass versus Cereal Rye.

Annual Ryegrass Sales Brisk on Production Gains in 2012

Sales of annual ryegrass seed this year have been “pretty good” said Illinois-based agronomist Ron Althoff. Even with extremely dry summer months, farmers were banking on enough rain to germinate annual ryegrass seed, while also hoping against a subsequent dry spell that could wither the new cover crop.

It’s a risk many are willing to take, after having seen the value of cover crops in the 2012 season, when corn and soybean production yields were 10 to 12 percent higher on acres where cover crops were used, according to a Midwest farm survey by the Sustainable Ag Research and Education program (SARE). Just that news has precipitated a continued rush to find cover crop seed. The research also indicated that the number of acres planted continues to climb steadily, increasing nearly one-third this year over last year.

Althoff, a seed dealer for Oregon-based Saddlebutte Ag, said that planting annual ryegrass has become more popular by airplane, or with high-clearance equipment, into a standing corn or soybean crop. Drilling cover crop seed after harvest gets trickier with a late harvest because annual ryegrass needs about 40 days of above freezing weather to establish well.

Althoff said that while he prefers annual ryegrass, farmers can plant other cover crops later because they need less time to establish.

“Corn grown on annual ryegrass cover crop got in some cases 50 bu. better yield than average,” he said. With that kind of return, it’s clear why people are finding the investment for cover crops worthwhile.